Resolve Journal Abbreviations in Older Citations

Find the journal behind the abbreviated title

A short journal title can look convincing while pointing to a different publication. Preserve the exact citation string, year, volume, issue, and page or article number. Search the NLM journal list for the abbreviation and compare the full title, NLM identifier, and print or electronic ISSN where available.

Check the publication period when a journal has changed its name. A modern title may share terms with its predecessor, and a supplement can have a similar abbreviation. Follow the catalog record to the appropriate title history when the year and journal name appear inconsistent. Keep the original citation spelling alongside the verified title.

Resolve a hypothetical ambiguity

An old bibliography contains 18 references with shortened journal names. Fourteen match one catalog record using the abbreviation and year. Four remain ambiguous. An issue scan resolves three of those through the volume and page sequence, leaving one unresolved citation. The audit therefore documents 17 resolved references out of 18, approximately 94.4%.

For the unresolved reference, retain the competing journal candidates and the missing fact that would separate them. An abbreviation match alone cannot establish that the article is indexed in MEDLINE. Store the resolved journal and the article-level retrieval result independently so a catalog match does not silently become an assertion about article coverage.

NLM journal list and field descriptions

Related worksheet: Systematic review search-run worksheet.

Source checked on 5 November 2026.